Posted on Jun 26, 2015
CH (MAJ) William Beaver
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My kid asked me how far could I go and still be going up? I need to sharpen my physics skills. What is the answer to his question? Which way is up in outer space? Is there no 'up' and 'down?' Or is there just 'here'and 'there?' Or is it really 'now' and 'then?'
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SSG John Erny
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That is a simple but complicated question. If you go north of the sun then you are going up, right, well what is north? Our Galaxy is disc shapeded, it has a top and bottom, choose what is north and south. Our Galaxy is part of a cluster that also has an orbital plain. The universe is expaning, what do you measure that with?
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MSG Signal Support Systems Specialist
MSG (Join to see)
10 y
"Lots of planets have a North."
--The Ninth Doctor from the episode "Rose".
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GySgt Wayne A. Ekblad
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SPC George Rudenko
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Damn, I typed this then the page reset. UGh.... BTW, I am a physics major from UCSB, so here is how I would explain. Like blowing up a balloon, our universe is growing. So, if you were driving on a road, the road is being built as we drive on it, We run out of gas before we reach the "end" (which would be the end of time, not of disatnce. That said... our universe is 13.8 billion years old, but that isn't the "size" of the universe we can view inside this multi-dimensional manifold is about 46.5 billion light years (radius). So the answer is, you can go UP as long as time continues to exist.
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PVT Robert Gresham
PVT Robert Gresham
10 y
I find it fascinating that a physics major finds it necessary to correct a theoretical answer given by a layman, trying to explain something to a kid.

I believe the question was, "Which way is 'up' in outer space?"

So, why don't you just lecture everyone on CMB anisotropy fluctuations as they pertain to the possible future of navigation? That would be much more interesting than the nonlinear dimensionality reduction theory.
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SPC George Rudenko
SPC George Rudenko
10 y
First of all Mr Gresham, you didn't ask the question.

If Cpt Beaver has issue, he can address it to me directly. But, since you find it so incredibly important to correct those who are wrong, I will genuflect and admit that I did not answer said question appropriately. I am sorry from my tiny phone I missed some words. I am sorry that after many head injuries, sometimes I read things wrong. I am sorry that this was so egregious as to illicit your venom.

So assuredly to make you happy, I will take my pathetic self, with all my scientific wrongs and crawl, no cower back into nothingness.

Dear Captain Beaver, my apologies for not answering your question. And I will not ever comment on anything scientific again, since it appears it makes no difference, anymore.
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CPL Richard Flagg
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Whichever way Geirge Lucas says is Up is Up.
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SFC Maury Gonzalez
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No matter, thanks to Obama and the Democrats there will be no CPT Kirk or uss enterprise , more like a Col Ivan Russky and a MIG Lenningrag or whatever the Russians call their spacecraft
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MAJ Keira Brennan
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Chaplain, in the greater universe there aren’t really “cardinal” directions per se like on a MGRS map. Nor is there really an up/down, north/south. But there ARE units of reference for directions for things “out there…” In many cases when we are trying to “predict” where an object is because the Earth is moving as well as the object! Now, taking “out there” to closer to home, if we wanted to know what “direction” a satellite or the ISS was from our position some of the considerations of WHERE something is versus “up there” or North are:
Epoch, Orbital Inclination, Right Ascension of Ascending Node (R.A.A.N.), Argument of Perigee
Eccentricity, Mean Motion, Mean Anomaly, and Drag
If we wanted to go to Mars or the next star, it simply is “Head west young man…” There is a LOT TO CONSIDER~!!!!!!
Former FA 40 – Space Systems Operations Officer
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LCpl Mark Lefler
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There really is no up or down, its objects relative to each other. Space in itself is not infinite, its like a big container eventually there is an end, which is hard to mentally wrap ones mind around.
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MSG Signal Support Systems Specialist
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Every way and no way. I'd probably tell a child that once getting far enough from Earth's gravity to be "weightless", there si no longer an "up".
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SPC Jan Allbright, M.Sc., R.S.
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"Up" is based on gravity.
There is no gravity in space.
Just like there is not real "Sun Rise".
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Capt Richard I P.
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Spoiler alert: in Ender's Game that concept is essentially the key revelation (perhaps your kid might enjoy the book given that the topic came up). In space relativity changes and you have to redefine up down left and right. Ender does so by orienting on the enemy: the enemy is down and his fighters literal think of themselves as 'falling on the enemy.' It's a brilliant concept in multiple ways. Up and down and even now and then are relative terms and you need to pick a reference point. As mentioned under your time travel thread: time passes at varying speeds relative to Forces acting on the observer. Substantial Gravity and near light speed are two great examples.
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CPT Student
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Space, as far as we know, is unlimited in distance on all directions. Without gravity there is no sense of up.
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SPC Jan Allbright, M.Sc., R.S.
SPC Jan Allbright, M.Sc., R.S.
10 y
That is up for debate, but the general conciseness is if you you COULD go forever in one direction you would return to your starting place because space / time is closed.
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LCpl Mark Lefler
LCpl Mark Lefler
10 y
actually they theorize that space is not unlimited.
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SN Greg Wright
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'Up' is a human construct. A human perception. Up would be however you define it, but it's generally going to be in the opposite direction of any gravity you're experiencing (on a rotating ship, for example.)
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LTC Joseph Gross
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Up is arbitrary. Try this! The universe is infinite but the location of any given planet is a finite point. That means every single point is the center of the universe! I had a math teacher show me the math. Something about dividing a finite number by an infinite number.
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Sgt Wayne Wood
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Which ever way you perceive it to be
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AN Christopher Crayne
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Edited 8 y ago
Simple answer for your kid, Try this......There are literally an infinite number of ways to go up in space. Pick any direction point and push off. You are going up. The universe is expanding like a balloon, So any direction you go can be up. For the question of now and then. It would be now and then since gravity is time. Easy breezy.
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LTC Bill Koski
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Ok, we have covered North /South, up and down, infinite time, x,y and z axis.
Are we going forward or backwards?
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